The Motel Reviews

A wonderful reminder that adult life is never as difficult as puberty was.

Full Review

A welcome addition to the "awkward adolescence" genre,

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5

A most impressive feature film debut by writer/director Michael Kang who has crafted a compelling tale by examining rites of passage from a fresh perspective, namely, that of a Chinese-American adolescent.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4

The Motel gives the lie to all those mainstream teen sex comedies starring happy, horny gwailos .

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

Perhaps The Motel meanders a bit too much -- hard to do in a 76-minute film -- but it is an engaging little movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

Each of Ernest's interactions and epiphanies is pure, calculated movieland.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

Kang and Chyau make for a great team, with Chyau able to give an honest performance that requires humiliation, but never disrespect.

Full Review | Original Score: B

As rundown as it is and as downbeat as its denizens are, only 76 minutes seems like too short a stay at "The Motel."

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

It's a modest triumph of unflattering realism, proving yet again that a camera, a few good actors, the right material and a sensitive director are all you need to illuminate any particular aspect of humanity.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

It's pretty much a customary coming-of-age tale, though it is told with refreshing honesty and realism.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

... suffers from rocky moments and an unsure eye, but [Kang's] sense of detail is rich with prickly contradictions and he resists tidying up the story.

Full Review | Original Score: B

There is honesty and integrity in the filmmaking and the performances, which make The Motel among the best character studies of the year.

Full Review | Original Score: B+

...specific and detailed enough to separate itself from the pack.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10

It's Kang's understanding of human nature -- not particularly profound, but true and sharp as a perfectly drawn arrow -- that makes this unpretentious production sing.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

A well-worn coming-of-age tale enlivened by pungent detail and a sharp visual sense.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

Even if writer-director Michael Kang doesn't exactly break new ground, he imbues his debut with a quiet, compelling inertia that mimics puberty's rudderless drift, its burgeoning desire for something, anything, to change.

Full Review

The third effort of Korean-American writer-director Michael Kang of New York brings attention to his unique demographic, but should have been a better made movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

It's actually really touching in parts, as well as infuriating.

| Original Score: 3/5

The film about of a teenage Chinese-American boy struggling with adolescent issues while working in his family's fleabag motel has the precise brevity of a well-crafted short story.

Unlike so many indie films, Michael Kang's gently empathetic debut embraces eccentricity without drowning in its own hip irony.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4